TWD Season 2 speculation/suggestion (merged threads)

In the coming months, Telltale Games will release three more episodes of their adventure game The Walking Dead. They won't stop there, though. Telltale marketing executive Steve Allison said that they will create a second season eventually as well.

"Following the digital release of our fifth episode we will also be coming to North American retail shortly thereafter and this will not be the last The Walking Dead game series that we do," Allison told Polygon.

The Walking Dead has been a huge critical and commercial success for Telltale. The first episode, "A New Day," sold almost 1.7 million copies in its first two months. It's said to be the company's fastest-selling game ever.

The game starts before the events of the Walking Dead show and comic. Lee Everett, a man convicted of murder, has been unexpectedly free as a zombie outbreak sweeps the globe. He and a small group of survivors band together in order to stay alive. As Lee, players must endure zombie attacks as well as internal strife among the survivors.

It's not clear whether the second season of the game will be a direct continuation of the first season. They might just decide to tell a new story with a completely different cast of characters. I'd be happy with either. The writing for these games has proven top-notch so I have faith that Telltale could craft another compelling set of survivors for us to follow.

Episode 3 of Walking Dead will be available in August. "Following the digital release of our fifth episode we will also be coming to North American retail shortly thereafter and this will not be the last The Walking Dead game series that we do."

It doesn't cost $20,000,000 to make a few detailed textures. If a modder can do it in a couple of days, shouldn't a trained team of artists be able to match it at the very least? I would like to see 2048x2048 textures on the main characters and 1024x1024 on zombies, that's it.

I listed a lot of advanced effects earlier that could improve the game graphically simply because some of the more hardcore fans don't seem to realize that the game's visuals aren't "perfect", there is a lot of room for improvement. I know it isn't very realistic to expect a small team to accomplish all of that, especially in a really old engine.

Anyways, it doesn't cost THAT much money to modernize your game, assuming you are using a powerful engine. Some examples of low-budget (relatively) games that were created with state-of-the-art graphics are Metro 2033, the S.T.A.L.K.E.R games, and The Witcher 2. Telltale is not, however, using a powerful engine, so they would either have to create a new engine, or license a new one. No one really expects them to do that, but they can still do basic things like improve textures, shadowmaps, LOD distance, terrain density, animation, etc.

I'm not defending the graphics, and I honestly don't remember the walker in the picture, so it could be bad in my game as well. I'm giving a reason the graphics aren't as good as others. Not to mention them having to rush out every season because of impatient brats.

No one's arguing that TWD game, in some areas, could use improved graphics. If you have played more than one episode, you will have in fact of seen some of the same zombies multiple times. This becomes very apparent when you're playing episode 5 and you see the horde. What most of the people in this thread are saying is that most people just don't care. When it comes to graphics, graphics are secondary to story, and should always be. TWD game has won over 80 GoTY awards and has a substantial fan base that you cannot really even attribute to the recent success of the TV show. The reason people love the game and are happily awaiting the second season, is because the story is so well-written and presented. Even if the graphics were substantially worse than they are right now, people would still be lining up to purchase the game simply because they know that the story is worth it. While you may be fixated on improving the graphics in addition to the game's engine, these things are secondary. If you wanted to pass on this recommendation to Activision for their new Walking Dead game, that'd be fine, because I suspect that the story's going to be secondary to amazing graphics.

No one's arguing that TWD game, in some areas, could use improved graphics. If you have played more than one episode, you will have in fact of seen some of the same zombies multiple times. This becomes very apparent when you're playing episode 5 and you see the horde. What most of the people in this thread are saying is that most people just don't care. When it comes to graphics, graphics are secondary to story, and should always be. TWD game has won over 80 GoTY awards and has a substantial fan base that you cannot really even attribute to the recent success of the TV show. The reason people love the game and are happily awaiting the second season, is because the story is so well-written and presented. Even if the graphics were substantially worse than they are right now, people would still be lining up to purchase the game simply because they know that the story is worth it. While you may be fixated on improving the graphics in addition to the game's engine, these things are secondary. If you wanted to pass on this recommendation to Activision for their new Walking Dead game, that'd be fine, because I suspect that the story's going to be secondary to amazing graphics.

Misconceptions are bolded.

The people in the thread that I was responding to claimed that the game looked "perfect". They didn't say anything about indifference, though it is reasonable to assume many feel this way (including myself, to an extent).

I listed many graphical features that the game lacks in response to those who claimed that the game looked "perfect". I also stated that I did not expect, or even really want, the game to implement all of these effects. Not only would it be impossible with the current engine, it would greatly expand the budget and development time. I asked for better zombie and survivor textures along with better shadows and LOD (both of which are incredibly simple to implement).

Also, Activision's bastardization of the franchise isn't exactly "impressive" in the graphical department. I would even argue that Telltale's adaptation looks superior.

I don't know what platform you're playing on, but my version of the game looked FAR better than that (and I've seen that zombie closeup several times). If you purposely turned the graphics to their lowest value, then that's no excuse for wanting an upgrade.

Seriously I thought the graphics were well done! The graphics weren't made to look like 3D human faces or whatnot on purpose, TWD crew didn't want people too focused on graphics, and also wanted the game to look a lot like the comics it was made to resemble/involve. The characters are mean't to look cartoonish/comic-like because that was the intention. The game was incredibly awesome even without it! *high five duck* And I'd agree that even if the graphics looked like the nintendo engine I'd still buy it for the storyline.

Awesome game, but yes graphics can definitely be improved. When you hear the voice actor speak, but the character doesn't move their mouth or just awkward movements... like when Carley is walking up the stairs and turns back to look at Lee. Both can be accomplished if they took their time. But of course graphics mean nothing if the story is crap.

So long as we remember that graphics and art style are not always the same thing, then yeah, some graphics (esp. animation) could be improved. However, I really like the art style of the game. The drawn style of the game actually makes it more life-like.

So long as we remember that graphics and art style are not always the same thing, then yeah, some graphics (esp. animation) could be improved. However, I really like the art style of the game. The drawn style of the game actually makes it more life-like.

Agreed. The art style is perfect. The characters are a lot more expressive and emotive than in other games that I've played.